If you happen to have a Dreamspark account through your university, you can get a free developer account and access to the dev tools. There is an emulator included with the pack. What I'm unsure about (as I've only done WP7) is if the new tools require Windows 8 to develop WP8 apps.

The main two requirements are that you need Windows 8 and to run your apps on the built in emulator you need a modern CPU that supports Hyper-V. If you don't have a Hyper-V CPU then you can test apps on your phone but you will need to shell out the $100 to unlock it with a dev account.

The main two requirements are that you need Windows 8 and to run your apps on the built in emulator you need a modern CPU that supports Hyper-V. If you don't have a Hyper-V CPU then you can test apps on your phone but you will need to shell out the $100 to unlock it with a dev account.

Thanks for the responses.

I do have windows 8 so that's no problem. I'll have to check the processor though as I'm unsure. What's the best way to check? Is there a tool for example? And do you need to spend the $100 to get access to the emulator?